Villa La Petraia is one of the Medici villas in Castello, Florence, in Tuscany. The Brunelleschi family owned it in 1364, and Palla Strozzi bought it in 1422 and enlarged the estate. Cosimo I de' Medici bought it from the Salutati family in 1544 and gave it to Cardinal Ferdinando in 1568.
Excavations from 1588 created terraces that are dominated by the main building. Bernardo Buontalenti is traditionally credited as the architect, though only the presence of Raphael Pagni on the site is documented. Leopold II laid out the Romantic northern garden.
The House of Savoy acquired the villa in 1860 and added a glass-roofed courtyard and an aviary. It passed to the Italian state in 1919 and is now a museum. A belvedere of the 19th century stands on the upper east terrace.
Comments